Sunday, 24 February 2013

People in brewing

People are needed to brew beer. Even the biggest automated breweries need people to make them work, maintain them, take readings, analyse samples and, of course, sell the beer. Big brewers also need bean-counters to add up all those huge profits.

Small breweries need fewer people. However, if you calculate the amount of beer produced per person employed in a small brewery you find that to make the same amount of beer, smaller breweries employ more people per volume brewed. I think this is important. A very good reason to support us little guys; we create employment, which s good for the economy.

Anyway, Alex Routledge has been very good for us. He has been our production brewer/production manager for about 18 months now. He's decided to move on. New pastures, a new start and as far as I can understand an exciting new brewery opening up somewhere near here. It's not my job to say what or where or how or why. He should have the pleasure of that.

All I can do is wish him well and thank him very much for all his help in getting Hardknott to where it is now. We couldn't have done it without him. I hope he's got as much out of working for us as we've gained from him being with us. I certainly think he's improved his brewing skills and I'm sure he'll be part of the brewing community for a longtime to come.

Meanwhile, we need to replace him. Meet Graeme, on the left in the picture above with Alex. He comes with the advantage of being slightly smaller. He can get into the copper and doesn't bang his head on the celling above the malt mezzanine. Rumours about him having furry feet and getting fractious if he misses second breakfast are completely untrue. At least that's what he claims.

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